From plant-based foods, to alternative meat, to preventing food waste, and efficient irrigation, see below for the full list of every food and agriculture stock in Carbon Collective's Climate Index.
Food waste and agriculture are big greenhouse gas emitters.
One-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and 10% of US emissions in 2019 came from the agricultural sector. Livestocks like cows, agricultural soils, and rice production accounted for much of these emissions. The meat-centric Western diet perpetuates methane-emitting cattle-ranching and land-use dedicated to mono-cropping for feedstock - both unsustainable agricultural practices.
Food waste also contributes 4.4 gigatons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year in the form of methane - roughly 8% of total anthropogenic emissions. In low-income countries, food waste is the result of weak infrastructure, lack of refrigeration, poor equipment or packaging, and combination of heat and humidity. In high-income countries, most of the food waste is intentional: retailers reject food based on their aesthetic imperfections, or consumers overestimate how much food they'll cook in a week.
Another big source of emissions are inefficiencies in farm irrigation. That's because pumping and distributing water requires energy, releasing emissions in the process. Particularly inefficient and detrimental is "flood" or "basin" irrigation, which submerges fields to water crops. This irrigation method remains the most common approach in many parts of the world, but can cause soil erosion and water depletion by diverting it from rivers and aquifers.
There are many solutions to food waste and agriculture emissions.
Emissions from cattle-raising can be mitigated through balanced diets. Plant-based and sustainably produced animal-sourced food can both curb the global warming potential of agriculture and help us lead healthier lives. Project Drawdown estimates that if 50-75% of the world's population restricts their diet to a healthy average of 2,250 calories a day and reduces meat consumption overall, the world can cut up to 68 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
There are numerous and varied ways to address food waste, too. Things as simple as using better storage bags, silos, or crates while transporting and storing food can make a difference. Companies can also make products and solutions to extend the shelf-life of food, thereby delaying food waste.
As for making farm irrigation more efficient, a couple of irrigation methods are promising. Drip irrigation achieves 90% application efficiency, and sprinkler irrigates gets up to 70% precision. Project Drawdown estimates that if 286.5 million hectares of farmland worldwide can be irrigated using these methods (only 53.8 million hectares were watered by drip and sprinkler irrigation in 2018), they can save 68 billion gallons of water and 2.07 gigatons of CO2 emissions by 2050.
We need to do it fast.
Convincing every person in the world to go vegetarian or vegan is probably out of the question, especially in the short timeframe we have to combat climate change. But there are many companies that are making plant-based foods and protein sources, as well as alternative meat products, that would appeal to non-vegetarians and vegans. The challenge is for these companies to scale as fast as we need them to.
The same can be said about companies working on solutions to food waste and irrigation efficiency. We need more of these companies, but more crucially, we need the existing ones to expand.
Here are the publicly traded companies that are making it happen. This list represents all of the plant-based food, alternative meat, irrigation efficiency and food waste reduction stocks that make more revenue from Drawdown solutions than from fossil fuel-dependent business traded on the New York Stock Exchange (except for penny stocks whose share prices were less than $0.50 in our last update).
If you are a Carbon Collective member, you own all of these companies through the Climate Index.
